The Ultimate
by Leftomaniac
Summary: Best friends, torn apart by their dueling obsessions, brought together by the ultimate RPG


This is something I've had lying around, half-finished, since I wrote 'Stars' By the way, I've decided to delete 'Nick is just BEGGING to face the moose' Sorry, but I just hate it:c)  
  
WARNING: This is only for the truely obsessed. Less-obsessive fans may find it creepy.  
  
Disclaimer: I own the sun and moon, but not IZ. Also, neither of these chars are SI, or Mary Sues. Rather, they are the two luckiest superfans in the world!  
  
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Almost instantly I knew she was there. It wasn't just the change in my skin tone that alerted me, I had come to recognize her presence without it. My entire body tensed, and I scanned my backyard, searching for her cloaked figure.  
  
Perhaps I should explain.  
  
My name is Zim. My real name is of no importance, I only hear it from my parents now. And my teachers of course. The game stops during skool. It's for the best, I suppose, if it didn't my grades would plummet. In addition to being important for my future, stellar grades are a requirment for the game.  
  
I won't argue with anyone who says that it's a game. By defintion, that's what it is. However, I don't really think there is a word that quite defines what it's become, to me and to many others. An obsession? Perhaps. Almost a way of life. It is a game in the same sense Invader Zim is a cartoon.  
  
But I sidetrack myself. I mentioned a moment ago that my skin tone changed. Perhaps that was misleading. You might imagine it had grown darker or paler. Or perhaps you knew, it had shifted from it's normal mixture of brown and beige into a gleaming shade of green. Such was a change I could initiate at will, but it always occured involuntarily when *she* was near.  
  
You seem startled by my words. Well, I can assure you that I was not born with such a talent. Have you ever heard of The Almighty Tallest? That's what I call them anyway. I'm sure she refers to them as The Swollen Eyeballs. I know it's the same orginazation. You look confused, so I'll explain further.  
  
I am 17, far to old to watch Nickelodian, but that hasen't stopped the hords of teenagers and adults who tune in every friday to watch Invader Zim. I can see you know of this show, otherwise you wouldn't be here.   
  
Until the show premired I was all but joined at the hip with my best friend, Dib. Again, her real name is of no importance, neither of us have used it in ages. We spent so much time together, people used to think we were sisters, or lovers. How hi-skool of them. We didn't care. Now we are simply 'those weird RP girls' We still don't care, our social status couldn't possibly get lower then it has always been. Being an outcast is another requirment.  
  
Yes, if you haven't guessed by now, we are players of The Ultimate, the RP game that blurrs the line between fantasy and reality.   
  
The premire of Invader Zim... The show that silmutantiously stregthened and destoyed our friendship. One thursday, she had called me on the phone telling me to 'Turn on the TV, NOW!" She directed me to the correct station just as the opening credits were starting. We stayed on the phone with each other, not talking, simply watching the people and places that would change our lives forever chase each other across the screen. How she knew when it would start, or how earth shattering, -heh, interesting choice of words- it would be I'll never know. I could never ask her now, you see.  
  
When the show broke for a commercial, we finally took advatange of the phone lines between us. We paused, for an awestruck moment of respectful silence, then silmultaniously broke into babbling hysterics. We began debating the highs and lows of the episode, and it was there that our biases  
first appeared.   
  
She wished there was more Dib, whereas I was eagerly anticipating Zim's first face-to-face encounter with a human. One thing we agreed on, we couldn't wait for Zim and Dib to meet. In the end, we both got our wishes.  
  
Initialy, we both liked Zim and Dib almost equally. We had some small dissagreements, but nothing really worth mentioning. However as the show progressed, our preffered characters became clearer, and our playful arguments got more heated and intense. Fanfiction compounded the problem, as many fics were clearly written by either Zim or Dib fans. Eventually, our 'disscusions' lost all pretense of playfull innocence.  
  
Oh, I can already hear the protests of 'It's only a cartoon!' But you must understand, to some, it's so much more.   
  
Our friendship weakened, it became, almost a rivalry. That set the scene for what came next. Enter The Ultimate. Enter the escape. Enter the world of fantasy and denial that so many long for, and so few recieve.  
  
For me, it was a tall woman with purple clothes and matching contact lenses. I've spent some time wondering what Dib's might have looked like, perhaps someone in a lab, or trench coat.   
  
I was 'studying' in the skool library, by which I mean I was sitting in front of an open book, drawing pictures of GIR, when she approached me.  
  
She was wearing a large hat when she first sat down, and when she took it off, I saw she had two long, thin beautiful antenne. They were false, of course, mostly laytex, but very well made and realistic. She had no hair whatsoever, not even eyebrows, and I was impressed with her bravery, not many women are willing to part with their most enjoyable feature.  
  
She glanced over my drawings, and remarked how practiced my pencilstrokes were. Then she asked if GIR was my favorite charater. When I said no, she smiled and nodded, saying she *thought* I looked more like a Zim fan.  
  
I was a bit taken aback by her words. After all, I didn't dress like Zim. On the contrary, I had a long black trenchcoat that might indicate a Dib alliance. When I asked her about this, she grinned wider, saying it was in my face.  
  
I've come to recognize the signs by now, and looking back, I realize it *was* in my face. My face, my voice, even in the way I moved.   
  
We talked for a while about the show, exchanging theories on several things that could easily be explained with "It's only a cartoon!" She was very impressed by my explantion for why the number of Zim's fingers seems to be contantly changing. That was when she took off her hat. "My Tallest!" I said, grinning. It was ment as a joke, but that wasn't how it came out. She smiled. It might have been then that she decided, I can't really be sure, I don't know how long she had been watching me for.  
  
Oh, I'm sorry, have I forgotten to mention she had been following me? And to think, I had thought I was paranoid.Well, they follow many people, prospective new members, you know how it is, or you can guess at any rate.  
  
But back to last night.  
  
I looked over my backyard, but I didn't see her. It was late, and my night vision had never been very good. My eyes darted back and forth over the wet grass. Until I heard a low, tauning, familar voice that sent chills of rage and pleasure down my spine. "Ziiiiiim," she whispered, and I turned. I tried not to let my fear show at the object she held in her hand. It was imperfectly round, green, and wobbling. It was a water balloon.  
  
Of course, it wasn't *really* water it was filled with, but I couldn't really tell you much else about it. It's FDA approved, and has no long-term effects, I know that much, otherwise I don't think they'd be allowed to give it to children. It is colorless, oderless, and will only react unpleasently if it comes in contact with another chemical, one that I am injected with once a month. The chemical it reacted with was the same substance that allowed my skin to shift hues.   
  
Dib was equipped with a seemingly inexhaustable amount of it. It had to be that way, after all, the 'real' Dib had an endless supply of water. It's really been her most potent weapon against me, and I can't help but wonder how she got it so early on, I'd have thought it would be unavailable until she reached a higher level.  
  
Oh dear, there I go getting ahead of myself again. I apologize. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of subtle stages in the game. At each new stage, the player is given an new task, and/or a new item of technology. How fast you advance depends on many things. Knowledge of the show, the outcome of your battles, or sometime a specific task. Dib and I advance at different rates, and so in addition to the official competitions between us, there is also a bitter race, to see who can advance the fastest, and therefore be the most prepared, most armed. I tell you, I went through almost a solid week of hell before I got my first shipment of the white, sticky counteragent that came in bottles marked 'Paste.'  
  
I hadn't bothered to bathe in the aformentioned counteragent that day. I wasn't really expecting an attack just then. You see, there are some rules regarding when we can 'visit' each other. No attacks during a personal or national tragedy. No attacks during, or immediatly after the show aired. No attacks on religious holidays. She was bending the rules very slightly by coming. It was 9:59 pm, central time, and the rules state that 8:30 to 10 o'clock on friday is off-limits. Such a slight difference in time would not be likely to warrent a punishment for her, but it did catch me off guard. I allowed myself to slip into character. My voice grew low and scratchty. "You think you can frighten *Zim* with your pit-if-ul hyuuuuuman weapons? I laugh at your pathetic... patheticness! Here I go: Bwahahahaha!" "You can't fool me *Zim*!" She said, hurling the baloon at me. I doged and it splattered on the back door behind me.  
  
I ran, she followed. We ended up as we always do, both battered and worn out, but gloriously happy nonetheless. That's pretty much it, really, it's rarely anything too eventful. Just another battle in an endless war. Another level in an endless and wonderful game. As the days go by, we both climb in rank, we're now at about the same level 'Purple' was when she introduced me to the game. Which brings me to the point of my conversation. You seem like a true fan.  
  
Who's your favorite character?  
  
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Okay, now I'll get to work on my two chappie fics! And BTW, that fic I asked for volunteers for? I PROMISED myself I wouldn't start it until at LEAST 'It had to happen eventually is finished, so be patient please:c) 


End file.
